Сергій Кабуд

FP: Tell us a bit more about how the FSB is operating in Arab countries and its people offering both money and advice to Islamists.

Zakayev: The FSB (KGB) is the most experienced terrorist organisation in the world, whose foundations were laid even before the Bolsheviks captured power in Russian Empire in 1917. For over a half of the 20th century, the KGB operated on every continent and effectively terrorised the whole world.

Having one sixth of the world’s dry land under its control, the FSB is in no shortage of resources. However, its most important instrument of influence is the constantly updated ‘Know How’ in every kind of terrorist activity, including kidnappings, explosions, hijacking planes, hostage-taking, use of poisons and nuclear materials for assassinations, etc. The most important ‘Know How’ is the FSB’s ability to form and develop extremist ideologies. Two examples of that are the Al Qaeda and the Wahhabism among Muslim nations in Russia.

Without going into much detail, let me remind your readers that notorious Aiman al Zawahiri spent half a year in Russia in 1997, just before he went to Afghanistan to join Osama bin Laden. That fact was publicly admitted by the FSB Chief Gen. Patrushev, who claimed, however, that the FSB failed to establish al Zawahiri’s identity. In fact, he had been known to the KGB from the old times when Egyptian president Anvar Sadat was assassinated. My late friend Alexander Litvinenko directly named Al Zawahiri as an FSB secret agent. Personally, I have no doubt that Al Zawahiri is the one who really pulls the strings in Al Qaeda.

The seeds of Wahhabism in Russia were sown in 1989, when the Party of Islamic Revival was founded in Astrakhan. Ever since then, the activities of so-called Islamic extremists in Russia and some Muslim post-Soviet republics are guided by the Kremlin’s short-term considerations.

The FSB keeps and guards its loyal agents at the top of its every project, wherever it takes place.

Al Qaeda is a global provocation, designed to clash the Islamic world with the Western world, thus weakening the both sides as much as possible. Those who capitalise on that are Russia, China and their allies in the totalitarian camp.

The task of Hamas and Hezbollah is to prevent peace between Palestinians and Israelis. That benefits Russia, Iran, and Arab dictators.

All the three organisations have nothing to do with the interests of the Muslim world. They are obedient puppets in the hands of others.

FP: Expand for us a bit on howAl Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist terror groups help Russia, Iran, and Arab dictators.

Zakayev: First of all, they raise tensions in an oil-rich region. The higher the tensions are, the higher the oil prices. Imagine for a moment what would happen to Russia, Iran or Arab countries if they suddenly lost their oil revenues. In a sense, the whole foreign policy of all these countries is targeted at selling oil for the highest possible price.

Secondly, Russia, Iran and a number of Arab countries have authoritarian regimes, whose internal opponents would be very much attracted to Western democracy at the time of stability. Therefore, fighting a war against the Western democracies is vital for those regimes’ survival. Using Al Qaeda, Hamas or Hezbollah, they can fight the West in foreign lands and with foreign hands; so they don’t care about casualties.

Another thing which unites Russia and Iran is their objective interest to prevent stability among the Sunnis. In case of Iran, the reason for that is the hostility along the Shia-Sunni lines. As for Russia, it fears that a stable and united Sunni world would ask it to free the dozens of Sunni nations which are still kept by force under its colonial domination.

FP: What kind of danger would you sayRussia poses to the West?

Zakayev: The conflict between Russia and the West is a conflict between authoritarianism and democracy. No peaceful coexistence is possible here. If you do not advance, you retreat. Today, Russia is on the offensive, and has advanced quite far, mostly because of some Western leaders’ short-sightedness. I am confident of the eventual victory for democracy, but to make it happen soon, the West has to start a decisive offensive. Unfortunately, the democratic camp today is less united than the authoritarian one led by Russia, China and Iran.